The Bible has many examples of people who responded to God for His purposes in their day, not realising how their relatively simple motivations and obedience was part of God’s greater eternal purposes.

How important it is to both read the Torah portion in context and also to understand the relevance of its teaching for every generation.

This week’s Torah portion, Shelach Lecha, reminds us that faith—not fear—is the key to entering God’s promises. Through Israel’s failure and God’s grace, we are challenged to remain steadfast, trusting in His ultimate plan and the coming of His heavenly Kingdom.

The light of God, symbolised by the Menorah, fulfilled in Yeshua and shared with His disciples through the gift of the Holy Spirit, must shine ever brighter in an ever darkening world.

On Shavuot, God’s purpose was to give His people the Ten Commandments, ten things that form the basis of all His Torah, interpretable into the entire life of righteousness before God.

God calls by name and appoints each one He chooses for His purpose. Nowhere in the Bible do we find anyone deciding for himself or herself what to be, in the service of God’s Kingdom.

“The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.”

Israel Advocacy Day brings together pastors and rabbis from more than 37 states to the nation’s capital at a time of increasing criticism of Israel on both sides of the political aisle.

Torah – the teaching of God brought to us in the first five books of our Bible – is foundational to all else in the Bible and in our life of faith.